1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally in the field of electronics. More particularly, the present invention is in the field of electronic devices relying on battery power.
2. Background
An electronic device, such as a cell phone or laptop computer, typically includes a power gauge (also referred to as a “fuel gauge”) for determining the amount of charge remaining in the power source, such as a battery, powering the device. To determine the amount of charge remaining in a power source, such as a battery, that provides power to a electronic device, such as a cell phone, the power gauge can determine the amount of charge consumed from the power source, which can then be used to determine the charge remaining in the power source.
A conventional power gauge can determine the amount of charge remaining in a power source, such as a battery, by periodically sampling the current drawn by an electronic device, also referred to as the “load current” in the present application. For example, the conventional power gauge may sample the current drawn by an electronic device, such as a cell phone, from a battery every 0.5 seconds during a 10 second sampling time period. By averaging the samples of the current drawn by the electronic device, a processing block in the conventional power gauge can then determine the charge remaining in the electronic device battery. However, if the electronic device, for example a cell phone, does not continuously draw current during the sampling time period, the samples may not accurately represent the current drawn by the electronic device during the sampling time period. As a result, the conventional power gauge may not accurately determine the load current, which results in an inaccurate determination of the amount of charge remaining in the electronic device's battery.